Orange You Glad I Didn't Eat the Peel?

Abby found some tangerines today that we got in our Saturday delivery of Angel Food. She is super smart and right away knew that the tangerine was one of her favorite foods (she loves, loves, loves citrus fruits). She did all of this finding while I was busy chopping peppers and onions for a pot of chili. I was very surprised when I had a little tug on my pant leg and saw that Abby had chewed through the tangerine peel and had gotten part of the fruit in the process. What a little smarty pants. I peeled the tangerine for her and she gobbled it right up. But not before I got a picture of her damage.

We are still working on focusing with the camera for an awesome coming around the door photo. I'm still not sure what the deal is, but the camera always seems to focus on something other than sweet Abby. At least I keep getting her to do the posing - one of these times the camera is going to get the focus right and we are going to have a home run.

Other than eating tangerines, peel and all, and walking through the doors, Abby is becoming a walking machine. She has almost totally forsaken crawling and just cruises around here like she owns the place. She is really steady for only having a few weeks under her belt. She is also becoming quite the mommy to her dolls. Yesterday she was sharing her sippy cup with her dolls during the day. When we went upstairs to get ready for bed she insisted on going up the stairs all by herself and did so one handed so that she could bring JoJo up with her. I tried to get her to give me the doll so that she could crawl up with both hands, but she would have none of it. Today she fed part of her snack to her dolls, and also part to her best buddy Maize. She is growing up and learning a lot. And with only 15 days or so until her birthday, she is leaving babyhood behind for girliness.

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa Harley!

Sorry it's one day late.

We have some new pictures to post later today, but first we need a nap and shower. We just wanted to make sure to send happy birthday wishes to Grandpa Harley!

Baby Loving

Abby has been doing some serious loving to her favorite doll JoJo. So far she's given him lots of hugs, kisses, and some drinks of her sippy cups and bottles. She is so funny with her dolls.

We are waiting for our snow to melt again. Yesterday we got about 3 more inches and today we didn't make it above freezing, so it's not going anywhere fast. At least we have beautiful sunshine to enjoy. And Easter candy.

And we are working on creating some exceptional 1 year photos of Abby, but so far we haven't had anything magical like her portrait last week or the cute bunny photos at White's (see previous post).

On that note, we don't have much going on. Just playing, housekeeping, and chasing the dog. So I best get back to doing all those fun things.

Cookie Making

Stair Climber Version 2.0

Here she is - walking and climbing up and down the stairs, thanks to her dad's great teaching.


Also, if you visit the website www.stevenwhitephotographicart.com you can now see Abby and Jack's bunny pictures! You have to choose portrait art and then select the client tab and enter the password "Hodges" (the H must be capitalized). They turned out super cute in spite of all the crying over the bunny!

Stair Climber

We have more video, but Blogger won't upload it. Err.... (insert angry face here)...

Our Big Barnyard

This is our farm herd. It's rather large. We just thought you all might enjoy meeting them. Plus they need names - any ideas appreciated!

Super Sleeper

Abby is going to win a big prize tonight for her great sleeping skills. She may have to have some ice cream or another special treat. She fell asleep at 6:45 last night and didn't wake up until 6:30 am. Then the little bug chugged two 5 ounce bottles and went back to sleep until 9 a.m. By my calculations that is about 14 hours of sleep. She must be about to grow a whole foot or something.

Here's a picture of Abby enjoying the 75 degree weather from last week. Unfortunately we are not enjoying such great weather today. But the icky gray weather and rain is helping to melt all our snow, so we will just think of how great the end result is going to be. And yes, we still have snow. At least 2 feet in some places. We have some places that are bare, but we have a lot more that are covered in snow.

We have been busy playing dolls today. Abby willingly gave up one of her old, small sized bottles so that she can feed her many, many hungry babies. It took us a long time this morning to make sure that we got all the babies fed. Now we just have to figure out what we are going to feed Steve when he gets home. It would be a shame for us to feed all those babies and not feed Abby's daddy.

For Grandma Jennie

Just for Grandma Jennie, since she asked so nicely, and because it was the end of Abby's 10th month, we've posted more Abby photos on our walmart.com site.

You can view and order the photos at: http://photos.walmart.com/groups/abbyschristmasalbum

If you haven't used the site before the password is "holiday". Happy printing!

Countdown to One

I woke up this morning and realized that we only have about 3 weeks until Abby's first birthday. It seems so unreal - she is growing up way, way to fast.

I took Abby's picture yesterday while she was watching traffic go by out the front window. I think it may be one of the most beautiful pictures of her that I've taken. We have a lot of really cute ones, but this is definitely my favorite.

We are finally back to normal and getting caught up. I still haven't even started tackling the laundry - that is this afternoon's project. I had too much to put away and had grocery shopping and such to do yesterday, so laundry was low on the priority list. Plus I spent most of my time on one of my biggest daily priorities - playing lots and lots of games with sweet Abby.

Our mini vacation in photos

Abby at Home

I don't know who was happier to be home - it was a close tie between Abby and Maize. One went straight for the toys and the other straight for the couch. We had a lot of fun down in Hastings, but it is always good to be home and sleep in your own bed - or in Abby's case last night in your own mom's bed. We had lots of fun last night. Abby had to hug every doll that didn't get to make the trip with her. She also had to try out her chairs and get almost all her toys out to make sure they were still here. On top of that she is a great walker after last week, so she was trying out her legs around the house.

We had fun playing with Jack and Melissa while they visited mom and dad too. We were even able to get Abby's photo with Jack and a bunny. They are professional photos, so when we have the link to the website later this week we'll share them with you. For the record, Abby hates bunnies and cried every time she saw the cute little rabbit. Oh well.

We'll try to add some photos later today - for now it's on to digesting all the stuff we dumped right inside the door.

Busy Back Packing Day

We are bringing this lovely lady down to Barry County tomorrow to deliver her fine kisses to friends and family. Maybe we will even decide to wash her face.

We heard it was going to be over 40 degrees down there next week, so I think I am packing t-shirts and shorts for myself. It's going to be a 40+ degree difference from the -1 degree we have right now. See you all tomorrow!

Slip Sliding

If I had bothered to watch the forecast (or if Abby had let me), then I probably wouldn't have been so surprised by the 6 inches of snow and the white out conditions we had yesterday. Or the ice. I met the ice yesterday, we got up close and personal. Abby, luckily, landed on top of me and so my back and elbow took all the hits. Abby didn't even wake up for the big crash.

We are approximately 1/2 way through our terrible busy patch. What a lot of work! The bad weather kept almost everyone inside yesterday, so our Angel Food ordering didn't go so well. I don't blame people for not wanting to drive through drifting snow!

Abby has recently discovered her ability to get into her dad's video gaming chair. It's a little rocker that sits directly on the floor and she loves sitting on it, standing on it, and crawling all around it. It also gets her about 4 inches closer to catching her rascally dog Maize. Yesterday Abby also started spontaneously walking for fun (rather than just walking a few steps from the couch to Steve or I). She was taking big long walks around our living room and around the health department. Hopefully we will catch her on video soon!

A Step In The Wrong Direction

We thought our snow was finally melting, but we were wrong. The bare patches that had appeared on our driveway are now gone. It is definitely a step in the wrong direction for us weather-wise.

We are enjoying some good times lately. Abby is playing longer into the evenings and is having a great time with her Dad each night. She still has a lot of fun with Maize and Mom during the day. Yesterday Abby had her first taste of broccoli and actually ate quite a bit of it before tossing the rest overboard to her furry friend.

We are busy, busy, busy this week and trying hard to keep up with housekeeping, blogging, and resting. Tonight we are having dinner out with friends, tomorrow Abby and I have Time Out For Moms and have to take Angel Food orders, Thursday we have a meeting with the MSU Extension office and have to take more Angel Food orders, and Friday we have a little play date, more Angel Food ordering, and bible study. And then Saturday we are off to Hastings so Steve can fly to Portland, Oregon on Sunday. Whoa... it makes my head hurt to think of all the work we are going to have to do in the next five days. On that note I better be getting back to something at least slightly productive!

Pepsi Please

We are really behind and have no good excuse. This weekend seemed to get away from us and we sure didn't get things done like we planned. Oh well... it was fun. Abby got her 6th tooth yesterday. She now has 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom. Quite a set of choppers they are and they are very good at biting and eating.

Most of our blogging dysfunction this weekend is due to Abby's new found love of the computer. If it is out she is trying to mess with it, pushing the buttons, pulling out the power cord, and in general being a little bit of a pest. So, that limits my ability to distract her with toys and get things done on the computer, which may cause quite a problem with all the Angel Food things I have to do this week. Abby's very favorite thing to do is open the cd-rom drive and smash it closed. Obviously not a good choice.

Abby's also pretty into pop cans. We may have to start pouring soda into a cup because she is like a heat seeking missile when it comes to pop cans. She found a closed Pepsi can this weekend and went crazy for it. But since she's already cut her finger 3 times on open cans that were left within her reach, we have got to find a better toy for her to play with.

In the last week Abby also began playing a newer, rougher game with her dog. It's a mild form of wrestling, with lots of kicking by both Abby and Maize involved. Maize will lay on her side and kick her legs at Abby while Abby, who is standing, kicks back and her. Then Abby laughs and Maize wags her tail. Apparently I am not enlightened enough to understand the joy of kicking and being kicked by your pet dog. Oh well...

And on a final note, Abby walked all the way across the living room at our Pastor's house last night. We had a nice visit with them and we were super proud of her long walking skills.

We've Reached The Point Of Exhaustion

We have finally reached the point where she just can't party anymore. Finally, we wore poor Abby out so she would take an afternoon nap. We just didn't expect that it would be in her high chair during her lunch time. And she went down fast - it was no more than 2 minutes while I was putting away the lunch supplies. And now... I am going to use her nap time to catch up on my much needed rest!

Good Deals Day

Abby and I went to Goodwill a day early this week (we had to drop some information off to the store manager). While we were there we tried to find some good deals and we had great success! Our Goodwill now sells all children's clothes for $1.99. We got two nice pairs of blue jeans, a Winnie the Pooh shirt, and a pair of black leggings for Abby. She is going to be one well dressed little girl. Better than all that, we found the loving family doll house (for little people) and it was a great steal at $2.99! We can't wait to get some good playing done with our new toy. Abby also got a good treat when her dad let her sneak some of his breakfast. She is one lucky girl!
















Abby helped me make 2 1/2 apple pies yesterday (the 1/2 was a mini pie that she also helped consume). She mostly took slices of apple and snacked while I peeled and chopped. She also played me some nice music with her instrument table. She was being very helpful. And our pies turned out pretty good, except that my rice flour crust wouldn't stay together. But if it's going to be sliced and munched anyway, then it probably doesn't matter how pretty the top of the pie looks.

Tonight we are going to try some Hawaiian style pork with pineapple, yummy!!! I am hoping a tropical dinner will help our snow melt.

I Just Want A NAP!

But Abby apparently doesn't want one herself. She is on an afternoon rampage and only had a short nap this morning, so we are getting to the ridiculously tired stage. It's a very good thing her best friend in the world, Maize the dog, is feeling rather playful today and is enjoying Abby's petting and pulling game.

Abby is still working on her 4th upper tooth (it will be her 6th overall). She's been chewing lots of things that she normally keeps out of her mouth. For example, she's been trying out pacifiers, which she hasn't used since she was about 8 weeks old. Unfortunately, she wasn't old enough to read the instruction manual, which would have told her that she has the pacifier in her mouth upside down.

Tonight is library night. We normally go during the day, but Steve will be heading to Salem, Oregon in about 10 days and he wanted a chance to pick out some books too. Abby has been much more interested in reading books lately, especially with her dad. I bet they will have a good time choosing some new things to read at the library tonight.

It Was So Cold...

Now here's the part where you all say "How cold was it" and we show you this picture of our exploded pop can. We had been enjoying the ability to leave pop out on our porch for a free way to keep it ice cold without cluttering up our refrigerator. Obviously we had to come up with plan b after our sub-zero temperatures created a 4 can explosion. Thankfully tomorrow night is supposed to be our last night of single digit temperatures for a few days. Hopefully we will be thawed soon.

We could also use the exploded can as a metaphor for my head, but it is much better. I managed to make it through the day without any cold medicine, and the only issue I've dealt with is lack of hearing. But, with a noisy dog and noisy Abby in the house my muffled hearing is almost a blessing in disguise.

Abby has been entering a new stage - deliberate disobedience. We are not too excited about her finally reaching an age where she purposely does things we've told her not to do. Our biggest problem is her constantly turning the t.v. on and off. I will admit, we found it funny and didn't address it right away, so we are partly to blame for the problem. So today, we tried doing a time out for not listening when I told her not to touch the t.v. power button. Let's just say that time outs were not working for us today, mostly because I couldn't stop laughing. Abby apparently loved being in time out and started doing her little Abby dance, cracking up, and in general enjoying her time in the "naughty chair". We are going to have to reconsider time out - it isn't going to be very effective if it's too fun.

Still Sick

Abby has bounced back wonderfully, but I seem to have a sinus infection and have been really out of sorts. The enormous amount of pressure has affected my hearing, vision, and breathing, so needless to say I've spent most of my last two days medicated and resting. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband to help me around the house. He's been so helpful that Abby wants to be with her daddy and won't even stay and play with me today.

Steve and I (and Abby too) participated in our first Angel Food distribution yesterday. Things went really well, people showed up to help, the orders were right, and the food quality was good. And we survived it with my sinus infection and Abby missing her morning nap. She just found all the grandmotherly aged women in the room and stole all their kisses. She is just a ham like that - as long as her mom is in sight.

So, I am going to get another cup of tea, some more advil sinus & cold, and try to get rid of this mess before our house falls apart and we run out of clean clothes. Abby has 5 teeth now and 1 more almost in, so between the two of us we haven't felt much like doing housework (or had the time to do it).